By Eamon Mcdonald: This fight will be a strong contender for fight of the year, and in this article I will explain why. Before I start, I just want to say that a lot of people have forgotten very quickly just how good Margarito was before the Mosley fight, and I firmly believe the old Margarito is back and ready to mingle with the best.

1. He weighed 147lbs for Cotto, 145.8lbs for Mosley. This is a massive reason for both performances. He was extremely strong versus Cotto and putting his punches together well by the middle to late rounds. In the Mosley fight, he looked tired from the first round yet still managed to eat bombs for 9 rounds. Many boxing insiders will tell you that a pound of weight can make a massive difference to a boxer’s performance, especially a boxer who is at LEAST a junior middleweight.

2. Margarito has the best chin in boxing (perhaps of all time) and the fact that he took the hardest puncher in the division 9 rounds to knock him out when he wasn’t in great condition says it all. At 150lbs, Pacquiao isn’t going to knock this guy out. He may have had plaster in his hands against Cotto, but he didn’t have plaster in his chin.

3. Determination and will. Margarito has the biggest heart in boxing to go with the best chin as well. He will be eating punches all night long from Pacquiao and he will be throwing back and making it a brawl.

4. There’s no way he has been cheating his whole career, you can’t get away with plaster inserts for that long, no way.

5. Margarito gave Paul Williams, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Kermit Cintron complete hell. These guys are junior middleweights and damn good fighters at that.

6. Pacquiao will not be as fast at this weight. This is the truth. Pacquiao has lost some speed moving up in weight and moving up again isn’t going to help.

7. Pacquiao does not have an amazing chin. Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto snapped his head back. It would be interesting to see what Clottey could have done if he had actually thrown punches in the early rounds (I still think Pacquiao would’ve won, but Clottey’s punches did hurt him).

There are 7 reasons off the top of my head, and good reasons at that.

FIGHT PREDICTION

Manny will come out all guns blazing and hit Margarito from all angles in every round there is. Margarito will take the punches well and throw back, hurting Pacquiao more than Pacquiao is hurting him. Margarito will continuously try to go to the body (whether or not he lands, I’m not sure). By the middle rounds, Margarito’s superb conditioning will keep him strongly in the fight and he will still be throwing everything he has at Pacquiao, leaving himself open for counters. By the late rounds, Pacquiao will start to fight smarter and not trade as often, though still striking Margarito in combos. By round 10, 11 or 12, Margarito’s corner will consider throwing in the towel, but Margarito will say ‘No’. The ref will stop the fight in round 11 or 12. Pacquiao has won his 8th divisional title and Margarito has gained a lot of respect for fighting with all his heart and at times putting the best fighter in the world in trouble.

I would be surprised if Margarito won.